Four U.S. cities — Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. — are bringing together local businesses, nonprofits, and learning institutions like libraries and museums to offer Cities of Learning programs this summer. With schools closing, the cities are working to fill the summer months with programs aimed at increasing workforce preparedness through skills development, internships, and mentoring; preventing summer learning loss; closing the widening gap in learning opportunities; and credentialing that learning through digital badges. Cities of Learning is an emerging national effort to equip young people with 21st century skills that has grown out of a decade-long, $200 million investment by MacArthur to better understand how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize and engage in civic life, and to redesign learning for the realities and opportunities of the connected age.
